Miami (EFE).- The first manned space mission of the Boeing company, which arrived on June 6 at the International Space Station (ISS), has delayed its return to Earth for four days, which was scheduled for this Friday, due to helium leaks.
The spacecraft had already had technical problems launching from Florida — including helium leaks — that delayed the mission for almost a year.
According to Boeing, the capsule manned by astronauts Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams has reported five leaks of helium, the gas used in spacecraft propulsion systems to allow the thrusters to ignite.
Boeing tries to find the faults
The company is evaluating whether there will be impacts due to these leaks on the service module’s helium collectors. NASA thus extended the mission four more days, until June 18, to give time to solve these problems.
The US space agency was scheduled to return to Earth on Friday. But now in addition to the leaks, it analyzes weather conditions and ISS programming issues, such as spacewalks by other astronauts aboard the station.
Due to that combination of factors, the Starliner could further delay its return to New Mexico, Arizona or another state. Sites that are contemplated for landing, depending on weather conditions.
The mission will allow Boeing to obtain the necessary certifications to operate as a second provider of cargo and crew transportation to the ISS, as SpaceX already does after million-dollar contracts that both private firms have signed with NASA.
The spacecraft is embedded in the Harmony module of the ISS and was scheduled to remain in this orbital laboratory for a week before returning on June 14.
Starliner postponements
The CFT (Crew Flight Test) mission took off after overcoming a series of problems in the last weeks before takeoff, related to both the Atlas V rocket, which thus made its first launch for a manned mission, as well as a small helium leak in the ship.
NASA and Boeing had planned the mission for May 6. But about two hours before launch they discovered an anomaly in a liquid oxygen tank on the Atlas V.
This, however, was not the first postponement. The first manned mission of the Starliner (which in May 2022 successfully completed an uncrewed trip to the ISS) should have taken off in July 2023, but a month before the managers announced the indefinite postponement of takeoff in order to solve the ship’s parachute.
If the mission is successfully completed, NASA will complete the certification process towards the end of this year. In that case, Boeing plans to make its first operational trip to the ISS in February 2025.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX, for its part, since May 2020, has carried out 13 manned space trips in its Dragon capsule, including four for commercial clients, and twelve of which have been to the ISS. In all of them it has transported 50 people, including astronauts, cosmonauts and private citizens.
